THE SEA-GULL. 



(March 17, 1888.) 



THK sea-gull we speak generically is entitled 

 to a place in the list of London birds. In 

 the London below-bridge, the busy, mercantile, 

 riparian London, among the docks and shipping, 

 this bird can hardly be said to be uncommon, 

 being at all events a frequent visitor. It does not, 

 however, confine itself entirely to the East-end, 

 as specimens may from time to time be seen, 

 especially in the spring, about the waters in the 

 parks of the West-end, the Serpentine in Hyde 

 Park being a specially favourite resort. 



During the severe weather we have lately expe- 

 rienced, accompanied as it has been by hard north- 

 easterly winds and snow, Londoners have had an 

 unusual opportunity of observing the habits of 

 sea-gulls, as they have frequented the river above 

 bridge, literally in hundreds, their range extending 

 at least to Putney in other words, from one end 

 of London to the other. It is seldom, indeed, that 

 these birds appear in such numbers on. the Thames 

 above London-bridge as they have done lately, 

 and their appearance has, from its rarity, caused a 

 corresponding excitement among Londoners, as 



